Denver and the West

Lower North Fork evacuation order came long after first 911 call

4-hour gap on fire

Flames from the Lower North Fork fire, which flared up March 26 and took six days to get
under control, attack a ridge near Reynolds Park in Jefferson County. A veteran firefighter
said the flames moved faster than any wildfire he had seen. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Less than three hours later, calls warning residents to get out were issued.

Elk Creek Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin said Wednesday that the evacuation notice to residents of the Pleasant Park neighborhood should have been made at least an hour earlier, when it was clear the fire was being driven toward homes by winds gusting to 80 mph.

But initially it was not his call.

The Colorado State Forest Service had called the Elk Creek fire department for assistance when the remnants of a controlled burn reignited in hot, windy conditions during Colorado's driest month on record.

"In retrospect, we probably should have gotten the word out sooner," McLaughlin said. "Had we taken charge of the fire sooner, we may have made that call."

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McLaughlin said the State Forest Service was more focused on gaining control of the fire.

But State Forest Service fire division supervisor Rich Homann said firefighter and public safety is always the agency's top priority. He said he could not comment further until an independent investigation ordered by Gov. John Hickenlooper is completed.

McLaughlin said after he notified the Forest Service incident commander that he was taking control of fighting the fire, he immediately called for evacuations.

Jefferson County made its first wave of calls at 5:05 p.m., but the calls went to everyone in the county who had signed up for cellphone and e-mail notification. Dispatchers frantically fielded dozens of calls from people from Arvada to Evergreen, explaining the "glitch."

The second series of emergency phone notifications went out at 5:23 p.m., said Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Mark Techmeyer.

McLaughlin said he first got a call from a citizen at 1:55 p.m. March 26 about a wildfire 6 miles south of Conifer. However, the first 911 call was made at 12:43 p.m., Techmeyer said. It's unclear whether the Forest Service was notified first.

While McLaughlin and a crew of three firefighters were responding to the citizen call, the fire chief received another call from the Forest Service, which had also called the North Fork and Inter-Canyon volunteer fire departments for assistance.

Initially it was a described as a 1-acre "slop over" wildfire that had crossed the boundaries of the controlled burn area, he said. Such a fire could be extinguished by a few truck crews, he said.

McLaughlin, who moved from Washington state and took the paid fire chief position in February, and his crew were delayed by about 15 minutes because they had trouble finding the right road.

"By the time we arrived, it had grown to 5 acres," he said. The Forest Service incident commander was then calling it an "escaped" fire, a more urgent category.

Another 15 minutes was lost after their arrival because they were on different radio frequencies than the state and couldn't find each other, McLaughlin said. The local crews couldn't tune in to the Forest Service channel. Ultimately, the state contacted McLaughlin and he relayed state orders to the other crews. It was about 3 p.m.

Intense winds were pushing 8- to 10-foot-high flames, he said. The winds gusted up to 80 mph.

"Firefighters had to hide behind their trucks to avoid being completely blown over. They were being pelted by embers as they were standing there," McLaughlin said.

By 4 p.m., he and North Fork Chief Curt Rogers considered evacuations. They made the first request for air tankers, McLaughlin said.

"The fire was so intense, there was no way to get the fire out at the head of the fire," he said. "We were having whole branches breaking off and blowing away. That' s pretty much a worst-case scenario."

The branches started hundreds of spot fires as much as a half-mile away.

Between 4:30 and 5 p.m., McLaughlin notified the Forest Service that he and Rogers were taking control of the fire in a unified command. Evacuations began, and he ordered 25 fire additional firetrucks. They moved the command post from behind the wildfire to Aspen Park.

"In retrospect, they would agree they should have taken a bigger-picture view and requested evacuation," McLaughlin said.

But he added that the fire moved twice as fast as they expected and faster than any wildfire he had seen in 25 years of battling wildfires from San Diego to Alaska.

"When the fire crested the hill into that neighborhood, the flames were up to 100 feet in the air," he said. "It was spreading 200 feet a minute."

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